I'll admit I went into this with a low opinion of Voyager, and that has certainly been raised with only few episodes letting me down, but I worry about when I get to the Borg and the stuff I haven't seen before.

I'm back! Briefly. I decided to cleanse my pallet of Star Trek for Into Darkness, and now that's done with, I think I'm going to take some time off to watch the TOS movies, some of which I've not seen since I was a kid. Either way, I got one more in last week, but only just now got the time to write it up.

Lifesigns

Viidians - I remembered them turning up more than this. Nice, different spin on them though. Nice to show the entire race aren't organ stealing mad scientists.

Anyway, the most disgusting race Star Trek may ever have introduced gets made pretty and the Doctor falls in love. To start with it rang a little untrue. The EMH struggling to cope with attraction, yet in the Beowulf episode we've already seen this. Though this is a much better version of it, and of course this time it's love.

Then it almost becomes an episode on euthunathsia, but instead carries on with "Love will conquer all." I'm not sure if this would have worked with any of the other actors. Picardo really shines here.

The pay-off from the "Why is Paris being an arse?" I'm surprised this wasn't carried on till the end of the season, but on the other hand Paris being annoying was wearing thin. A neat episode, it's interesting that Neelix managed to be both interesting and annoying at the same time. I'm assuming 'A Briefing with Neelix' is never heard from again?

Subspace distortions creating two Voyagers, only revealed after an incredibly tense opening act as the ship gets done over. Great opening.

Though I'll admit, when it started, the ship started blowing up and Kim died, I thought it was another time mishap. How thankful I am that I was wrong.

Then to build up to the Vidiians slowly massacring their way through the 'healthy' ship. Voyager really went big on this one. Although the effect of trying to get two Janeway's into one shot was a bit messy. Even Red Dwarf managed it better. Though two on screen at once is nothing to complain about. Especially battle damaged Janeway.

I'm impressed with the ending, the bravery of sticking with the severely damaged ship instead of the pristine one. Knowing Voyager, I'm saddened that this likely doesn't get followed up.

Kim's dilemma at the end was good, though Kim's the lesser of the two with that in particular problem. Technically the yet to be named Naomi isn't with her mother, and the Wildman who is now her mum lost her Naomi. That's a little messed up... sort of.

Without the reset button? How do you figure? No one died, those who did were replaced from the double ship. The bad guys died, and all the damage to the ship was repaired by next episode. That's text book reset button to me.

Without the reset button? How do you figure? No one died, those who did were replaced from the double ship. The bad guys died, and all the damage to the ship was repaired by next episode. That's text book reset button to me.

It was extremely "reset" heavy, but a great episode before that. It's a shame as once again we're into territory that would have been interesting to see repercussions of again. Voyager limping along trying to repair would have been great.

Meanwhile I got back from Holiday last night and got through three episodes.

Innocence
Pretty average and standard episode. Moving on.

The Thaw
Wow, it looks a lot like a TOS episode in the computer. Bloke from Spinal Tap was excellent. Loved Janeway's solution here, and it's an interesting set-up for the next episode.

Tuvix
And let the debate begin. An excellent episode, with a rather difficult decision for the Captain towards the end. I like it that if the solution was available right at the start it wouldn't have been a problem, even Tuvix would have jumped at the transporter. Instead, Janeway has to wrestle with the decision of is it right to kill one person to save two. I honestly don't know, though as the other Vulcan put it, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

The actor portraying Tuvix did a fantastic job, and he really did come off as a more likeable amalgamation of the two characters. If he had failed on that front the entire episode would have fallen apart.

What we're all really ignoring though is one Ensign Harry Kim's giant dereliction of duty. The transporters are playing up, so he fixes them, only instead of testing them he just beams the Away Team back up instead. All that plant nonsense is clearly Kim covering his own arse.

Innocence... pretty boring. I'd dissect just how dumb it is they become kids as they get older... but that would require me caring enough about the episode to do so. Not to mention it morbidly amuses me for some reason the thought of one of those alien women giving birth to a shriveled old person the size of themselves. Well amuses me more than an episode of Vulcan babysitting.

The Thaw... one of Voyager's better episodes. Unlike most clown villain spinoffs this one doesn't make you just want to groan and fight over who can change the channel first, but this guy actually felt menacing and threatening. Not to mention chopping the log to scare Kim was hilarious, and it's oddly fitting that Janeway manages to conquer fear by being more menacing.

Tuvix... well I'll keep this short as I've spouted off on long tangents on the latest hundred plus page Tuvix thread. First, to get it out of the way, I believe Janeway is guilty of murder for that one. But to the episode itself and not the moral implications of it, the acting was well done and it presented a compelling scenario. You really could like the Tuvix character even if he looks like he came out of a blender and the scene where he's begging for his life on the bridge, desperate for anyone to help him but finding only silence is wonderful in it's sheer morbidness.

Oh she absolutely committed murder, but at the extent of saving two lives. Her face and reaction to the reappearance of the Tuvok and Neelix say it all, that decision was not easy and it weighs heavy. I think that's why it's an episode that stays with us so much, Janeway has to make a hard decision. If she didn't kill Tuvix, she was condemning two other people to oblivion.